Focolare: On the side of 43 Mexican students

“We are living on top of a cemetery, and we demand justice, ” says the slogan of the protest which led thousands of students to take the streets. In fact, from 5 November in Mexico, all the schools have started to strike. A student revolt which in these three days have asked the government to make a greater effort to search for 43 of their peers, who disappeared in the state of Guerrero last 26 September.

The mayor of Iguala (the municipality where the students disappeared) José Luis Abarca and his wife, María de los Ángeles Pineda were arrested, accused of being the persons responsible for the students’ disappearance. While they were being interrogated on the mysterious disappearance, also the Focolare Movementin Mexico asked the government to further clarify the facts.

“The violence and injustice committed against the disappeared students and against the thousands who have disappeared over the last years in our country are things we cannot accept and we strongly denounce this with indignation, while we demand that similar events no longer be perpetrated. We are deeply moved and involved as persons and as a society,” they said in the press release.

They moreover invited all to take a stronger commitment to build a reconciled country:  “Peace is not built through violence. To regenerate ourselves as a more humane society we have to respond with charity and forgiveness. Not with gestures of indifference and tolerance, but with the commitment to work concretely for the common good.” The declaration targets therefore, to transform the hearts of people first of all, and especially those who govern: “A legally constituted state cannot suffice, we need to transform the hearts of those who make up the institutions.”

The appeal addressed “all the people who profess a faith, whatever it may be, and all the people of good will, so that, united, we maintain and nurture the commitment to be builders of peace wherever we live and work.”

In brief, they suggested a “Time-Out for peace,” to the Mexican people and to call attention to the tragic situation in Mexico and in all the countries suffering from violence: “…A minute of silence and prayer for peace, every day at 12 noon, as a visible and concrete sign of fraternal solidarity towards every person in suffering.”

The Focolare Movement spread throughout the world adheres to the “minute for peace,” in support of the Mexican people with the hope that respect for life, search for truth and justice prevail over all forms of the abuse of power.